Oscar Johnson (businessman)

Oscar Johnson was born circa 1863 in Senatobia, Mississippi.[1] He was raised by an uncle in Holly Springs, Mississippi.[1] He had a brother, Jackson Johnson (who went on to serve as the chairman of the International Shoe Company), and two sisters, Lillian Walter and Perle Dye of New Canaan, Connecticut.[2]

Roberts, Johnson and Rand-International Shoe Company Complex in St. Louis, Missouri.

Johnson first worked as a clerk in a country store.[1]

With his brother Jackson Johnson and his cousins Edgar E. Rand and Frank C. Rand, Johnson co-founded Johnson, Carruthers & Rand Shoe Co. in Memphis, Tennessee in 1893.[1] By 1908, they moved to St. Louis, where they co-founded the Roberts, Johnson & Rand Co. with John C. Roberts.[2] In 1911, they acquired the Peters Shoe Co.[2] It eventually became known as the International Shoe Company, and Johnson became its president, while his brother Jackson was its chairman.[2] By the time of his death, the International Shoe Company had become the largest shoe manufacturing company in the world.[2]

Johnson married to Irene Walter, the daughter of Confederate veteran Harvey Washington Walter, in 1889.[1] They had two sons, Oscar Jr. and Lee, and a daughter, Fredonia.[3] They resided at 28 Portland Place in St. Louis.[3][2] They also owned a farm in Franklin County, Missouri.[3] Additionally, they acquired Irene's family home, Walter Place in Holly Springs in 1889.[4] He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,[2] the Noonday Club and the Ridgedale Country Club in Ridgedale, Missouri.[1]

Johnson died on July 28, 1916, in St. Louis, and he was buried at the Bellefontaine Cemetery.[2] Upon his death, he was worth an estimated $2,147,742.[3] He was succeeded as president of the International Shoe Company by his cousin Frank C. Rand in November 1936.[5]